Today there has been great anger express among Australian farmers directed at the Australian Peak Farming lobby group, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) over its stand on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
To ensure that this anger is channeled in the right direction it is important to think clearly about who and what the National Farmers Federation really is.
Firstly the NFF is perceived by government and media as the undisputed voice of Australian farmers.
Many farmers believe the NFF to be a separate organization of which their State Farming Organization ( SFO’s) is a member. Indeed this is a misconception that the NFF and SFO’s and the Commodity Councils foster amongst farmers.
When the NFF was formed in 1979 it replaced a plethora of state and commodity based farmer groups with a single “federated” organization based in Canberra. As the term “federation” denotes it does not have individual members but rather has member organizations. The NFF member organizations are the State farming organizations and the Commodity Councils. Here is a list of the member organizations that make up what is called the NFF.
In effect the NFF has around 55,000 members through its State member organizations (to know accurately you have to know the exact membership of each SFO.) The Commodity Councils (CC’s) have no members only the SFO’s.
The NFF is in fact a “family” made up of the executive, the councils, the committees, the commodity councils and the SFO’s.
However the State Farming Organizations are the foundation of the NFF “family”. Without the State Farming organizations the NFF does not exist.
The NFF’s funding comes from the SFO’s who pay a contribution a fee in order to be state members of the “Federation”. The SFO’s also pay the “federation” a subscription fee for seats on the relevant Commodity Councils.
As stated before the SFO’s are the only members of the “federation” who have direct farmer members. The SFO’s fund the whole NFF “family” via voluntary subscriptions from farmers.
So when you refer to the NFF you are actually referring to an organizational grouping, the foundation of which is the State Farming Organizations.
The office bearers of the NFF and the Commodity Councils are the delegates appointed by the the State Farming Organizations – from the State Farming Organizations.
The State Farming Organizations therefore wield considerable influence and power over the “federation”, the office bearers are SFO delegates and the NFF is fully funded by the SFO’s.
So as a farmer if you are talking about the NFF you are actually talking about the SFO’s who “club” together as a “federation” to deal with issues that cross a single state border.
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This is the first article in a series – the Next will be the Role of the State Farm Bodies.
Agmates editor – Steve Truman
